


Promises in the Night

by SierraNovembr



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Captain America: Civil War Trailer, Established Relationship, M/M, Nightmares, slight Stuckony if you squint, the first one anyway, wedding vows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 20:44:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6209416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SierraNovembr/pseuds/SierraNovembr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky has a nightmare. Tony takes care of him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promises in the Night

Iron Man is wearing down. His movements are more sluggish, each repulsor blast aiming wider and his blocks coming fractions of a second slower. Bucky can feel the rage and pain burning through him. He’s never felt farther from being the Winter Soldier, all reason has fled and he just wants to hurt and hurt and _hurt_. Iron Man’s boot skids the smallest fraction on the concrete and Bucky’s reflexes take over. He kicks out at an armored knee and shoves hard when Iron Man’s balance wobbles. Bucky slams the other man against the wall and brings his metal arm up in a flash, crushing the golden face plate in his metal hand. He can hear himself shouting, something full of pain and not in English.

Iron Man has crumpled at Bucky’s feet. He looks down and catches a flash of Tony’s broken face, bloody and unconscious, before Bucky forces himself to stumble away. Icy horror floods him, the rage he felt moments before abandoning him. _What has he done to Tony?_

“Well, that’s one way to shut him up.” Steve’s voice comes from behind Bucky and he startles a bit at how mean and mocking it sounds. He turns and sees Captain America propped against one of the concrete pillars with his back to Bucky, gazing out at the snow-capped peaks and chuckling lowly. It is the only sound; Tony is eerily quiet behind him.

He approaches Steve, trying to wipe the blood off his metal palm, but it is stubbornly dripping down his fingers. Steve turns to face Bucky as he cautiously stops beside his best friend. Bucky lets out a soft gasp when he notices Steve’s pallor, the man is beyond pale. His lips are a bright, violent slash of red in an otherwise colorless face. Even his eyes seem washed out and grey like soggy newspaper rather than their familiar blue. 

“Steve?”

Steve leans towards Bucky and then is falling into his arms as if Steve cannot keep his feet for a second longer. Bucky catches him and tries to ask what the hell is going on, when suddenly Steve is kissing Bucky, tongue parting his lips roughly. Bucky feels a second of surprise before Steve is pushing hot, thick blood into Bucky’s mouth. It’s coating his tongue and he can’t breathe through the wave of nausea the taste sends down his body. He pulls back, cursing, and stares as the blood runs down Steve’s chin, staining his teeth red. Steve laughs and laughs until he starts coughing, a rattle in his chest that Bucky hasn’t heard for the better part of a century, but that still sends fear curling through his gut. He has to help Steve, somehow, _fuck_ he has to help. Bucky reaches for his gasping friend and feels a crawling sensation on his hands and in his mouth. 

The blood is alive, wriggling up his arms and down his throat and Bucky is sure he’s going to vomit now, hot prickly sensation rushing through him.

Bucky heaves himself upright in a dark room, barely registering the soft bed he’s in before he’s sprinting to the bathroom to be sick in the toilet. He’s quiet when it’s passed, trying to keep his hitching breathing from waking the man in the next room. Before his heartrate has even started to come down, he hears Tony release a quiet, heartfelt, “Damn.”

Tony Stark pushes through the door then, his normal human eyesight barely enough to make out Bucky crouched on the bathroom floor. Tony is squinting in the darkness and rubbing a hand through his impressive bedhead and Bucky feels his heart squeeze in his chest as tears of relief spring to his eyes. Tony’s okay. Bucky hasn’t hurt him, not tonight at least.

“Hey, baby.” Tony whispers softly. “Do you need me to get Steve?”

It’s a valid first question. For months after Steve and Tony had both finally been released from the hospital following the events the media had dubbed the Super Hero Civil War, Steve, Tony, and Bucky were nearly inseparable. Tony and Bucky were each grappling with having almost lost Steve, and agreeing to take care of that punk from Brooklyn with far too much stubbornness was the first truce between them, the first step in their friendship. Eventually, their relationship grew into a love that still scares Bucky some days with its intensity. But all the forgiveness and blossoming love in the world wasn’t always enough for Bucky’s subconscious to remember that Tony wasn’t the enemy, that he’d never been the enemy in the first place. 

They were all manipulated and Bucky had nearly lost the best thing to ever happen to him before he’d known it was going to be.

Steve had saved him again. Bucky was certainly giving him plenty of opportunity to practice that particular habit. His best friend spent weeks sleeping in the same bed with him, it was the only way that either of them were able to get any rest. Until they realized two important things: that Tony had just as much difficulty with nightmares as Bucky and Steve, and that Tony’s bed was almost obscenely large. They spent most nights all together for nearly a year after they returned to the tower. That way, all three could remind themselves that each had come through the ordeal alive. It served to keep all of their nightmares at bay. Or, at least, there was company for each of them when they hit. Eventually, they reached the point where Steve could stay elsewhere without his own demons driving him from sleep, and Bucky and Tony reached a point where they put their privacy and that large bed to good use. But sometimes, it got to be too much, and one or both of them would need to see Steve, touch him, and they would call Steve up. Once or twice Steve let himself in, too.

He’ll need to see Steve soon, remind himself that his friend is still breathing, but Bucky can still feel Steve’s tongue in his mouth and the memory of the blood sends another wave of nausea through him. He shakes his head and makes a small negative noise, but doesn’t trust himself to speak yet.

Tony understands anyway. He scratches at the back of his head and then grabs the collar of his sleep shirt and tugs it off, handing the skin-warm cloth to Bucky. Bucky pulls it on over his naked chest and wraps his arms around himself. He can feel Tony’s scent beginning to ground him, but he isn’t ready to be held yet, and Tony knows it. They are distressingly good at reading each other’s distress at this point, Bucky muses.

He curls up with his back against the wall and scoots over enough that Tony can come sit beside him. His husband takes the unspoken invitation, sliding down next to Bucky but careful not to touch him. Bucky holds himself in a tense ball, trying to shake the feeling of Tony’s armor crumpling in his hand, trying to focus on the sounds of Tony’s quiet breathing.

Tony hums lowly as he takes them through their established routine, slowly pushing back against the terror gripping Bucky’s heart when he thinks about his husband’s bloody face. After Bucky’s breathing begins to slow, Tony reaches out to place a gentle hand on the back of Bucky’s neck, thumb rubbing softly through his dark hair. He has Friday slowly bring up soft lights and then, very quiet, the audio recording of their vows on their wedding day begins to play through the speakers.

Bucky closes his eyes as he feels the first sob try to escape. This had been Tony’s idea, and it was pure genius. He needs to hear Tony’s voice, Tony’s love for him, he needs to reaffirm his own love for this mad billionaire who is currently sitting on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night for Bucky, but he can’t stand speaking or uncertainty at moments like this and any hint that Tony wanted to know what had happened in the dream might send him into a low level panic. Their vows, on the other hand, are always the same, always perfectly predictable and yet they manage to sound like a new way of saying “I love you” and “I’m here” every time he hears them.

He listens to Tony promising to be Bucky’s strength when the world is against him and he lets go of some of the tension in his muscles. He listens to Tony promise to always have Bucky’s six and he slides across the floor to press against Tony’s side. Bucky hears Tony promise to love him for the rest of his life, and he lets the tears come.

Tony wraps both arms around him as the Bucky in their wedding promises to make every day count. Bucky feels his husband press a kiss to his neck while his voice vows to catch every tear that falls from Tony’s beautiful eyes. By the time Bucky is repeating that he would grow in love with Tony every single day, they are both crying and trembling slightly. Bucky finally allows Tony to guide his face up for a sweet, closed mouth kiss. 

Soon they will have to get up, Tony’s back will be protesting their position on the tile, though he will never, ever admit to it. Soon, Bucky will brush his teeth and tell Tony a little about the dream. Soon, he will go back to bed with Tony’s strength beside him. First thing next morning they will go down to Steve’s apartment and Tony will make toast while Bucky hugs Steve until the sound of rattling breaths has been pushed back to Bucky’s distant memories. But for now, Bucky presses another kiss to his husband’s neck and lets his every sense be filled with Tony.

**Author's Note:**

> I first watched the trailer for Civil War peeking through my fingers because I am frightened of that movie. Then the thought of this scene wouldn't leave me alone, so I guess I am writing fic now. Thanks for reading!


End file.
